BUCYRUS — Galion and Bucyrus had met 120 times on the gridiron in their storied history going into the season opener Friday night.

The 121st meeting went the way the 10 prior to it had gone for the Redmen — into the loss column. It spoiled the debut of Bucyrus coach Matt Makeever.

The Tigers built a 28-0 halftime lead and then cruised to a 42-7 victory to retain possession of the Seccaium Park Trophy for the 11th straight time.

“It’s an awesome tradition that we get to play,” Galion coach Matt Dick said. “They’ve been doing it for over 100 years, I believe. It’s nice we have the trophy. Our kids get excited about it. It’s neat to be part of and I’m glad they keep doing it.”

The Tigers wasted no time taking control of the game, taking the opening kickoff and mounting a seven-play, 79-yard drive capped by a 35-yard scoring strike from quarterback Wilson Frankhouse to Isaiah Alsip for a 7-0 lead.

“Our plan was to make them drive and bring pressure,” Makeever said. “(Galion) really executed. That first half was pretty impressive on their part. There were some big drives — I don’t know how many plays they were. I was impressed with how they executed.”

Galion’s second drive proved Makeever’s point. The Tigers went 71 yards in 14 plays and reached the end zone on a three-yard run by Hanif Donaldson for a 14-0 advantage.

Bucyrus threatened midway through the second period, getting to the Tigers’ nine, but the drive ended on a missed 28-yard field goal attempt.

“They were up 14-0 and it was only our second drive,” Makeever said. “We put a good one together, we covered a lot of the field. We didn’t finish the drive. We ended up with zero points.”

Brayden Eckels scored on a 12-yard run to cap a 10-play, 80-yard drive and Frankhouse ran in from six yards to make it 28-0 at halftime.

Frankhouse was 11 of 15 for 180 yards in the first half of his first varsity start at quarterback. He finished 18 of 25 for 249 yards and three scores.

“It makes it hard to want to run the ball when you have all these weapons, because they can catch it now and go for 20,” Dick said. “And when you pound the ball, we go for 10 yards at a pop. It was awesome to run the ball.”

Bucyrus looked to get back into the game on its first possession of the second half. The Redmen took only four plays to go 73 yards for their first score of the year.

The big play of the drive was a 53-yard connection from Ben Seibert to Jaylen Zehner. Seibert found Keaton Naufzinger over the middle for 18 yards to cut the deficit to 28-7.

Naufzinger then intercepted a Frankhouse pass at midfield and Bucyrus was poised to get within two scores. But on the first offensive play, the Redmen fumbled the ball back to the Tigers and they never seriously threatened again.

“We showed that we can do some things,” Makeever said. “We showed potential. We’re not going to end the year with potential. This team will work and get better.”

Galion tacked on two more scores, one on a 48-yard Frankhouse-to-Alsip pass and a 10-yard pass from Frankhouse to Jackson Staton.

The Tigers had four receivers with at least three catches. Alsip grabbed six for 130 yards and two scores. Trevor O’Brien rushed for 47 yards on nine carries. Galion had 130 net yards on the ground.

Seibert was 12 for 25 with two interceptions for 184 yards for Bucyrus. Zehner caught five balls for 107 yards and Naufzinger had four receptions for 44 yards. Devon Newland rushed for 23 yards on six carries and Lincoln Mollenkopf had 23 on four carries.

“We have a lot of weapons. We can be really explosive on offense and we can shut you down on defense,” Dick said. “But we won’t shut down good teams if we play the way we did tonight.”

“The score dictated we change what we do,” Makeever said of the lack of running game. “We can do that too. We have that in our bag. Again, Galion’s a good team. They played well today.”

“They were pushing to go out and make it a game and I think that showed,” Dick said. “We responded well.”

“There are things we can do well, there are,” Makeever said. “A couple of things to get better at an we’ll have a better result.”

Box score

Galion                14          14        14         0   — 42

Bucyrus             0           0          7          0   — 7

Scoring summary

First quarter

G — Isaiah Alsip 35 pass from Wilson Frankhouse (Dominic Pittman kick), 8:59.

G — Hanif Donaldson 3 run (Pittman kick), :57.

Second quarter

G — Brayden Eckels 12 run (Pittman kick), 2:41.

G — Frankhouse 6 run (Pittman kick), :47.

Third quarter

B — Keaton Naufzinger 18 pass from Ben Seibert (Tyler Bishop kick), 10:58.

G — Alsip 48 pass from Frankhouse (Pittman kick), 8:27.

G — Jackson Staton 10 pass from Frankhouse (Pittman kick), 2:18.

Individual statistics

Passing

Galion: Wilson Frankhouse 17-25-1 249; Sam Wegesin 1-1-0 0.

Bucyrus: Ben Seibert 11-27-1 177; Trevor Ley 1-1-0 7.

Rushing

Galion: Trevor O’Brien 9-47, Frankhouse 8-34, Hanif Donaldson 5-14.

Bucyrus: Devon Newland 6-23, Lincoln Mollenkopf 4-23, Eddie Dagher 2-15, Seibert 7-14.

Receiving

Galion: Isaiah Alsip 6-130, Kalib Griffin 4-41, Jackson Staton 3-40. Donaldson 4-38.

Bucyrus: Jaylen Zehner 5-107, Keaton Naufzinger 4-44, Newland 1-24, Mason Gebhardt 1 7, Mollenkopf 1-2.

Team statistics

G         B

First downs           18          12

Rushing             32-130    21-47

Passes             18-26-0     12-26-2

Yards passing      249        184

Total yards          379       231

Fumbles-lost       3-0      2-1

Punts-Avg          2-30.0    5-28.2

Penalties           4-35       6-60